Re: Trouble with Properties and Sparse Trees/Agenda View

From: Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com>
To: Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Trouble with Properties and Sparse Trees/Agenda View
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 15:03:39 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20524da70904041503g6a08e132s2d3a854982bd7e5d@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <6E32EA84-3D99-4347-AF79-A7860B555680@gmail.com>

For what it's worth, I have never been able to get used to midcaps,
underscores, or runtogetherwords.  I like hyphens too.  :)  Would be
splendid in tags also.

How about escaping with \ ?  And escaping \ with \\ .

Pro: might work, is the expected behavior, easy to document.

Con: will need special handling if search strings are constructed.
  Anti-con: if lisp search syntax is ever done, that is easier to
construct anyway.  :)

On 2009-04-04, Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> welcome back.
>
> Your search fails because "-" is an operator in tags/property searches.
> Therefore it should not be used as a character in a property name.
>
> A search
>
>     Contact-Name="Shannon"
>
> will search for entries that do have the tag "Contact", but that do
> not have a property "Name" with the value "Shannon".
>
> You need to use Contact_Name or ContactName or something like this
> for your property names.
>
> Hope this helps
>
> - Carsten
>
> P.S. I do now realize that this restriction is not enforced or even
> described in the manual.  Actually, I would like to have "-" in
> property names, but how to disambiguate this is a search?  The best
> is to avoid the dash...
>
> On Apr 4, 2009, at 9:22 PM, Tom Shannon wrote:
>
>> In my never ending search for good organizational tools I've come back
>> to try org-mode again.  The concept of using tags wasn't that
>> appealing to me but the addition of properties and columns makes it
>> now very feasible.  I am, however, running into problems associated
>> with these new features.
>>
>> I'm using org-mode 6.24b and emacs 22.2.1 under Ubuntu Linux.
>> Creation of sparse trees and agenda views based upon tag matching is
>> working very well for me.  Creation of sparse trees and agenda views
>> based upon properties fails spectacularly.  So badly in fact that I
>> know I must be doing something wrong.  Here's a sample org file:
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> * Tasks
>>  :PROPERTIES:
>>  :Task-Status_ALL: "Not Started" "In Progress" Waiting
>>  :END:
>> ** Shannon, Thomas R.
>>   :PROPERTIES:
>>   :Contact-Name: Shannon
>>   :Task-Status: Waiting
>>   :END:
>> *** TODO This is a task
>> *** TODO Task 4
>> **** TODO Task 2
>> **** TODO Task 3						       :Tag1:
>>
>> * This is a heading
>> ** TODO This is a task
>> ** TODO Task 4
>> *** TODO Task 2
>> *** TODO Task 3
>>
>> ----------
>>
>> Creation of a sparse tree (C-c / m) with a tag match "Tag1" give the
>> following:
>>
>> * Tasks...
>> ** Shannon, Thomas R....
>> *** TODO Task 4...
>> **** TODO Task 3						       :Tag1:
>> * This is a heading...
>>
>> So far so good.
>>
>> Creation of a sparse tree (C-c / p) to match the property
>> "Contact-Name" with the value "Shannon" when prompted gives this:
>>
>> * Tasks...
>> * This is a heading...
>>
>> I expected:
>>
>> * Tasks...
>> ** Shannon, Thomas R....
>> * This is a heading...
>>
>> Trying to create an agenda view based upon a property is even worse.
>> I can't get a search using C-c a m to match anything but tags.
>>
>> This functionality is make-or-break for me.  Any indication of what
>> I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tom S.
>> --
>> The release of the atom power has changed everything except our way of
>> thinking...  The solution to this problem lies in the heart of
>> mankind.  If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
>> -- Albert Einstein
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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